bookmark_borderWhen you can't write…

… write.

12 days into 2009 and my first little hiccup. The weekend offers me nothing with which to grace this blog, unless you want the fascinating tale of the one time I ventured outside all weekend, to pick up our wheelie bins as they had blown over. This led me to have wet slippers and the discovery that the sole of said slippers is slightly tapered and the join between sole and upper is almost completely underfoot in the middle of the slipper, unlike a more conventional slipper construction which would have a solid sole all the way across the sole of your foot, the join being at the sides.

Oh god. Am I really talking about slipper construction? How quickly I sink to such depths.

But then deciding to stay within the confines of the house, rather than venture outside into the howling gales and lashing rain, means my sources of blog inspiration are limited, as evidenced above.

Largely I ‘pottered’. Which means I did a little work (a design proposal for a prospective web design client), played some games on the PlayStation (ok, one game, Pro Evolution Soccer 3), tidied a little, watched TV a little, ate a little (3lb weight loss from last week!), read a little more of Live and Let Die, and so on and so and so on.

Ohh and I played with the cat.

But I’m determined I won’t resort to using the cat as blog fodder even if he remains charmingly cute and occasionally annoying.

To be fair my weekend was quietly enjoyable and if I’m honest it did actually generate a fair few topics for this blog. It’s just that I can’t seem to write that much about any of them.

I was going to discuss the blatant sexism in the James Bond novel I’m reading but then it was written in 1954 so one can hardly expect it to live up to modern political ideals.

I could discuss Pro Evolution Soccer Master League tactics, specifically who is a good buy for a Division 2 team (hint: Gouffran, Gambino, Urreta, Mezague and Beria first) but that would REALLY narrow my audience. Not to mention the fact that most of the information I have to offer is already listed in the previous parentheses.

I could cover the fact that I spent some of the weekend re-installing Windows and, subsequently, will have to spend more time re-installing the applications I use. In a way this is a good thing, it means I can clear out those that I don’t really use anyway.

And finally, I could ponder my thoughts around the idea of switching to using my MacBook as my main computer, with the purchase of a NAS drive to host my working files, media and photos but… well that’s a way off so no point in doing that.

Instead I thought I’d just start writing and see what happened and, as usual, I find that I’m quite able to fill a blog post. Sure the quality isn’t that great but a post is a post (except when it’s a page, right?).

And hey, YOU’RE still reading..

bookmark_borderNews Headlines

Gosh, things are bad aren’t they. Awful. Credit Crunch apparently. No no, recession now. Or is it still a ‘downturn’? Hey it can’t be bad, did you hear the profit announcment from BP?

Enough of that, what about Brand and Ross? What a fuss! Fine them and be done with it. Everyone knows what they are like, and whilst that’s no excuse (and they should be dealt with) is it really the only news of the day?

What about the preview of Windows 7? No?

OK, a cat update. Last night he brought us a dead mouse and this morning, as I opened the front door to leave the house, he appeared with a tiny dead bird. Now I’ve had words with him about this before so he knew fine well that I would be taking the bird from him and disposing of it immediately.

I’m sorry but he needs to learn. Anyway, I have promised him that, the day he brings home a bloody magpie (in every sense of the word), he is free to de-feather, disembowel and generally torture the noisy thing all he likes.

And finally, Pro Evolution Soccer is taking some getting used to but it’s slowly winning me over.

Ummmmm.

So.

How are you?

bookmark_border[insert large cat themed title]

That is a “large cat” not a “large title” that is “cat themed”. Although that would work too I guess…

Mac owners the world over know that tomorrow sees the release of the most important new piece of software for sometime. Just after Apple have released record figures which see them now positioned as the largest PC hardware manufacturer on the planet, tomorrow should add to the current buzz.

Yes, that’s right, tomorrow will see millions of fans flocking to stores to get their grubby hands on Pro Evolution Soccer 7!!

I can’t wait. I’ve read all the reviews and it looks good… Sure it will look better if you are playing it on a PS3 or XBox 360 but hey, my little PS2’s doing fine thankewevewymuch.

OK. I confess, I too am intriguingly excited about the new version of Apples OSX. Codenamed Leopard the Mac websites have been banging on about this for a while now and, frankly, I’m glad it’s almost here because it is getting a little boring. For sure there are plenty of posts about preparing for an upgrade, what will be in the upgrade, what’s good about the upgrade, what’s bad about the upgrade, and so on, but geez give it a break!

In saying that, despite the wealth of information that has been published about Leopard there is one thing which hasn’t really been taken into account, at least not that I’ve seen. There are a large number of people who will be updating their version of OSX for the first time. Like me, there are a lot of new ‘switchers’ who have probably only recently gotten to grips with OSX, and got it all tweaked as they want. What of us ohh hallowed fanboy website?

From what I can tell, you can upgrade in situ, and nothing much should break. Or you can do a fresh install which will take you back to the default settings. I’m not sure if that wipes out user accounts as well, I guess it does.

I do have a list of the apps that I’ve installed, and kept, on my MacBook and we don’t keep files on it so, other than the odd file or two, there isn’t anything on it that either of us is particularly bothered about. A clean install is the mostly likely option. However I’ll probably hold off until later on, as I don’t really need any of the new functionality… mind you, I do have a trip towards the end of November, an ideal time to play with a new OS… hmmmm.

And, of course, there is no small amount of curiosity on my part. I’ve upgraded Windows machines all way through from 3.1.1 to Windows 95 (BETA), from 95 to 2000 (thankfully never from Windows Me), and from 2000 to XP. I don’t think I’ll ever be bothering with Vista. I’m keen to see how different the process is with the Mac OS as my experience with it suggests that it will be much smoother.

What about you, fellow Mac user, are you going to be upgrading? Have you upgraded before? If so, any hints or tips for us newbies? I

bookmark_borderWeekender

Friday night. Games night at work, with a Wiimbledon tournament running on one wall (using the overhead projector) and a Pro Evolution Soccer tournament running on one of the small LCD tvs.. a third TV had an XBox hooked up for various games, and a second Wii was chopping and changing another set of games. Chaos. And pizza.

My thumb still hurts.

Saturday and we picked up some friends and headed to Strathaven for a BBQ. The weather held, surprisingly, and we all ate too much. For a change I didn’t have that much to drink, with the onset of a migraine lurking.

Which wiped me out for most of Sunday. Bloody things.

Still, we did make it through to Dumbarton to wish our nephew a happy birthday. We no longer have any nieces or nephews who aren’t teenagers and Louise and I feel very old.

And that’s about it really. I did read Nigel Slater’s book “Toast” (funny and sad at the same time) and we did watch Transamerica on the Saturday night (great movie), but not much else happened. Which was good. I could get the hang of these 3-day weekends you know…

I see the discussion that, somehow, I kicked off last week is still going on, and I’ve got some more thoughts on that myself. As for the rest of this week, well I’m not entirely sure what it holds, but do swing by if you get a moment.

bookmark_borderJust one more

Hands up everyone who’s played Tetris.

Hours I spent, flipping blocks round, shuffling them left and right, until my hand would cramp and the buttons of my GameBoy start to wear down. One memorable train journey down to London gave me the opportunity to play for some 6 straight hours and I could hardly move my thumb for days. You should’ve seen the high score though!

Anyway, I’m a bit too busy to play many games these days, and I certainly don’t have the time nor the patience required for something like Tomb Raider. In fact, my game playing has evolved to the point where I much prefer a good “pick up and play” to anything that requires time or devotion (I can place Pro Evolution Soccer in the “pick up and play” category because I’ve been playing it’s first inception —ISSDeluxe on the Megadrive— and know the controls off by heart).

To that end puzzle games are something I try to avoid, knowing full well that a “quick game” soon turns into “IT’S 3AM! TURN THAT BLOODY COMPUTER OFF!!”.

I’ll pause at this point to say that I hate Ben. I hate his games even more. Specifically I hate Bubble Blitz.

Like all the best puzzle games it’s simple to learn, easy to play, and has the ability to bend time to it’s will. It’s pure evil, there’s no other excuse for it.

I downloaded a copy of the game a couple of weeks back but it wasn’t until the weekend that I finally installed it, fired it up and… whoooosh. It’s 3AM. Just like that.

Thankfully I was TRYING to stay up to pick Louise up after a night out but, that aside, it’s a testament to this game, and more specifically it’s addictiveness, that I hardly noticed the time until my mobile buzzed with someone demanding a lift (thankfully it was Louise).

Dammmit. It did it again!!!

I was just firing it up to check something and next thing it’s an hour later!

Where was I?

Ohh yes. The interface is nice and bright and friendly, the sounds can be turned off (but aren’t as bad as some, and yes that includes the original Tetris tune!), and there is just a nice chunky feel to this game. Only annoyance is the continual interruption of the in-game messages —GOOD MOVE, BONUS and so on— but that’s a minor irritation and it didn’t stop me from playing it for about four hours straight.

So, if you DON’T want to lose valuable time playing a game, if you DON’T want to wonder where the past couple of hours went then avoid this game altogether.

On the other hand, it’s wonderfully addictive and hey, we all like a little diversion now and again, right?

Bubble Blitz by Binary Sun ~ an excellent waste of time!

bookmark_borderResolutions

Two and a half months in, are YOU sticking to your New Year resolutions?

I didn’t make any but I’m beginning to think I should have. Maybe it’s a reaction to my current workload, but I sometimes think I’d be better served if I had something to focus on, a hobby other than this one. Admittedly I am trying to be more organised, I’m pausing more often to consider whether what I am currently doing is what I SHOULD be doing, and I’m trying not to over commit on any side projects to ensure I have sometime left for me.

At least that’s what I hoped I was doing but my problem is when I DO have some free time as I usually spend it doing something unconstructive and pointless (usually Pro Evolution Soccer on the PlayStation if you must know). The camera lies untouched, the sheet music perched on the keyboard remains unturned, the book stack grows higher (although that’s primarily due to the amount of dust gathering atop the pile).

Trouble is I quite enjoy doing nothing. I quite enjoy switching off but only if I can remain occupied. Boredom is my greatest fear and it assaults me constantly, whether it’s being broadcast on TV (not so much of a problem these days), or manifesting itself in yet another boring rant or moan assaulting my ears and eyes it is ever present.

So I’m resolving to keep busy. Not overly busy, and not in any selfish way but busy as in focussed. The next question is – what should I focus on?

P.S. Drafted this last night. No inspiration to write anything else.